Winter Warm Up

Only a few more days to go until we hit the first day of winter – the temperatures are definitely getting colder!!

To make sure you can still get your blood pumping before those early morning workouts, we have asked our Personal Trainer Conny to share her favourite warm-up tips with you!

What should a Warm Up include?

All warm ups should start with cardiovascular exercises to gradually increase the heart rate and get the blood pumping through the muscles. Don’t forget to include some dynamic moving stretches which help loosen the joints, improve range of motion, make the body more limber and increase body awareness.

Why should I Warm up?

A proper warm up can help prevent acute injuries like hamstring strains – imagine taking a rubber band out of the freezer and stretching it? It’ll snap clean in half. Cold muscles aren’t much different and more likely to tear without being properly warmed up before the workout.

How long should a warm up last?

You want to at least invest 10 minutes into the warm up – and before you ask: yes, you should break a sweat, but don’t make it too intense.

Conny’s Winter Warm Up

You can use this routine whether you are training at home, outdoors or in a gym as it is fully adaptable to suit your workout needs.

Cardio:

Choose between:

5-10 minutes of light jogging

2 x 3 minute rounds of skipping

5 minutes on the Rower

Dynamic Stretch

For 1-5 Mark out roughly 10 meters and perform the exercises below – jogging back to the start between each one. 6-8 are performed on the spot.

Walking High Kicks

Knee to Chest

Inchworms

Lunge and Twist

Open/ Close the Gate

Chest Crossovers

Torso Rotations

Leg Swings

Walking High Kicks

Kick your legs up as far as you can whilst keeping the leg as straight as possible.

Inchworms

Keeping the legs straight, place your hands on the floor and walk them forward into a plank, then walk the feet towards the hands and repeat for the whole length.

Open/Close the Gate

Pull one knee up at a time and externally rotate to “open the gate” on the way up and internally rotate to “close the gate” on the way back.

Torso Rotations

Keeping the arms nice and relaxed and the feet firmly planted shoulder-width apart, rotate the torso.

Knee to Chest

Whilst walking forward bend your knee and pull it up towards the chest with both hands.

Lunge and Twist

Step forward into a walking lunge and at the bottom of the movement twist the torso towards the front leg, holding the arms out to a T.

Chest Crossovers

Cross the arms over in front of the chest, keeping the elbows bent to dynamically stretch the upper body.

Leg Swings

Perform the leg swings going through the whole range of motion. Use a wall for balance.

Note from the author:

Personally, I always warm up myself and my clients before a workout. For starters, it really doesn’t take long to warm up and it’s my job to minimise risk as much as possible. Secondly – you know those days when you just don’t really feel like a workout but you do it anyway? Even as a Trainer I still get those days and particularly then a good warm up always gets me in the “Zone” so I can give 100% in my Training! Last but not least – I know from experience I perform better after a warm up. Why wouldn’t I warm up if I there are so many positives to it?

A muscle is like a car – if you want it to work properly on those cold winter mornings, you have to warm it up!

As always – I’m here for you if you have any questions Health and Fitness!

Lots of Love xo
Conny

For more awesome workout and nutrition tips follow Conny on Instagram @connyhoffmannfitness.